GLEANINGS I N 



E E CULTURE 



A L- 01- .ST. 1918 



by one of my grandsons, only 18 years old, 

 a student at Oberlin College: 



"Why are there so many false teeth nowadays? 

 Wei Americans take all the minerals out of our 

 flour by making it white, all the minerals out of our 

 sugar by making it white, all the minerals out of 

 many of our breakfast foods by making; them white. 

 all the minerals out of our rice by polishin)g it to 

 make it white, all the minerals out of our vegetabless 

 by peeling them — like potatoes. Then we wonder 



why GUI' teetli (wl;icli are made of mineral matter) 

 are not what they ought to be. One of the /' r 

 (jreat arguments in favor of the use of honey is that 

 it contains these highly valuable mineiraLs. In this 

 respect it is away above white sugar, and corn 

 syrup, neither of which contains any mineral mat- 

 ter. Many people think to make up this loss by 

 drinking mineral waters. Nojisense ! With the ex- 

 ception of one or two minerals, such as common salt, 

 the body cannot use the minerals in mineral water 

 because they are in-organic. Wynne Boydeu. 



HIGH-PRESSURE GARDENING 



XKAV POTATOES BY "FOURTH UF JULY." 



For almost if not quite 70 years it has 

 been my ambition to have new potatoes in 

 our garden by July 4. Sometimes they are 

 lather small, of course; but when put in 

 with .green peas, even if they are not larger 

 than hickorynuts, we find tliey are almost 

 equal to the peas, and they do not cost) a 

 quarter as much money or time and work, 

 as a rule. Well, what brings the matter 

 vividly to mind just now is the fact that on 

 the da.y before the 4th of July potatoes 

 Avere retailing at our family gi-ocery at 

 90 cents a peck. The.y did not have any old 

 liotatoes — in fact, had not had any for 

 two weeks* — .just those new potatoes 

 grown down in Floi'ida, and shipped all 

 the way up to Cleveland, and then from 

 Cleveland down to Medina, adding freight 

 and lu'ofit all along; and when they ar- 

 rived at ]\Iedina it was 45 cents for half a 

 }ieck, and this when every man and woman 

 and almost every child could have planted 

 potatoes riglit here in Medina so as to have 

 beautiful nice potatoes for cooking at al- 

 most no cost at all exce}it a little work o it 

 in the garden. 



Of course, the weather has something to 

 do with it, l»;it we did not get here from 

 oui' F]o)i(hi home until Api'. 20. Abo\it 

 the first thing 1 did was to get some Six 

 Weeks jiotatoes out of the cellar, where 

 they were spi'outing nicel.y, to plant, and 

 get them in the ground, even if the wea- 

 ther was cold and wet. We planted a few 

 light avray, and then got the ground in 

 better condition for the planting later on. 

 Well, those T planted about May 1 are 

 now furnishing beautiful potatoes, hu'rer 

 than hens' eggs, if T go about from liill to 



*Bv tile wav, the Ann'riraii /.s-.v(/(. tc'ls us tl'-H 

 two mil'ion Inii-hels of polatoes in the hands of tlic 

 fanners up in Wisconsin were a'lowed to rot be- 

 cause it was impossible for tlie railroads to furni li 

 cars to .sliip tliciii whore they were wanted. Yv' :il 

 tliis very liinc tlic city of Milw;aikee was siMidiii',- 

 out four train loads — triiiii IikkIs. mind vdii, not 

 carloads — of her Civerv 21 lioiirs. 



hill and look cai'efully to find out where 

 the ground is being pushed up by the beau- 

 tiful tubers. Some of our children say, 

 " Why, father, it is a big waste to dig po- 

 tatoes when they are only half grown." 

 But, bless you, we do not dig the Avhole hill. 

 We just go along and pick out the largest 

 ones, and the disturbance to the rest of 

 the hill does good rather than harm. By 

 the way, I do this work of getting a nice 

 potato here and there with a big enameled 

 spoon ; and this spoon I keep hanging on a 

 nail right handy, and I use it almost as 

 much as I do my hoe. When you get used 

 to it you will find it nicer than any trowel 

 to dig ai'ound plants, and I think it is 

 handier. 



Well, how about the high-])ressure po- 

 tato-growing pictured in our July num- 

 ber. These we did not get started quite 

 as early, but the.v were put in the bed 

 (l)ictured) somewhere about May 1; and 

 it was about four weeks before we had our 

 ground ready so we could transplant them, 

 and they too were ready to furnish pota- 

 toes by July 4, but not (|uite as large. Now, 

 liere is one point : 



1 have spoken alxmt 1)uying potatoes 

 by the Italf-peck, even if it is many times 

 good iiolicy to buy enough ahead so as to 

 get something like wholesale prices. But 

 wlien there is a creat clumce that pi'ices 

 uja.v go down, and go down suddenly, it is 

 both iirudence and policy to buy a little at 

 a time, and that is w'hy we have bought so 

 few at a time. You may have noticed that 

 about the first week in July, when home- 

 grown potatoes come into the market, f'e 

 price may drop almost a lialf within '24 

 hours. 



Years ago a gi'ocer hei'e was o it of )■()- 

 tatoes, both old and new; and one r'ch 

 patron told him he wanted some potatoes, 

 no matter what the.v might cost. Accord- 

 ingly the gi'ocer sent wofd to me that lie 

 would gi\'e me an awful ju'ice — I do not 

 remember what — for half a bushel of new 



